We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
«  
  »

Here is something rather marvelous…

· Slogans & Quotations

…that can be found over on www.bureaucrash.com

Why do some people wear pictures of mass murderers on their t-shirts?

Which reminds me of my favourite picture of Che Guevara, that achingly cool totalitarian pop icon…

Sic semper tyrannis

As you sow, so shall you reap

August 11th, 2003 |

17 comments to Here is something rather marvelous…

  • mad dog
    August 11, 2003 at 2:28 pm

    Not quite as creative as the “dissident frogperson” but at least there are no heads on spikes…

    …apart from showing us all that Che is now “finally” dead what was the point of this picture?

    Hopefully not to imply now Che is dead that all the statists in Cuba will throw in the towel. One day maybe but I suspect not just yet.

  • Guy Herbert
    August 11, 2003 at 3:22 pm

    Isn’t being dead a big advantage in a revolutionary hero? (For fellow revolutionaries, not the hero himself, I mean.)

    Your supporters will really thank you for not being around to argue with your publicists about the image, change your mind, or betray the revolution by not building a very good paradise…

  • S. Weasel
    August 11, 2003 at 3:45 pm

    My neighbors’ teenage daughter walked past me yesterday wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt. I’ve often wondered how much of his mystique is because he’s cute, particularly in the famous image.

  • mad dog
    August 11, 2003 at 4:30 pm

    I blame it on capitalism popularising the image of a dead revolutionary for profit and in doing so spreading his fame further afield than it might have got under its own steam.

    What a weird realtionship! Both sides (Che and “the capitalists”) hated each other and both got to further their own causes by drawing on the particular strengths of the other! Che gave them a social icon and capitalism pushed his image to the far corners of the globe.

    One wonders why life can’t be like this more often. :0)

  • Perry de Havilland
    August 11, 2003 at 4:39 pm

    The point is that the only good tyrant (or would-be tyrant) is a dead one. That is the point of the second picture. These people have brough misery and horror to millions. Cuba is a large open air jail. Seeing the ‘hero’ of the Cuban communist revolution refuted is good. Seeing him refuted and shot dead is even better.

  • mad dog
    August 11, 2003 at 9:09 pm

    Actually at the time the Cuban revolution took place they weren’t actually communists. It became a communist country sometime later. As for it being a large open air jail – well there is something to that argument.

    However, if you think the bit of Cuba that Fidel runs is opressive – you should see the bit that American Administration runs.

  • Lexington Green
    August 12, 2003 at 4:03 am

    Che was the Uday and Qusay of his time. That guerilla genius didn’t realize the indios in the hills spoke chechua and wouldn’t understand a word of his Spanish. Oops. Despite this shoulda-been-fatal mistake, The Bolivians were way too inept to put Che on ice, so the US Special Forces went down there and chased him down like the varmint he was. This is Che’s most flattering picture, the one time we get to see him in his final pose as a good commie. Thanks for the reminder. You’ve made my evening. I hope we get to see Saddam and Osama in a similar posture, the sooner the better.

  • David Gillies
    August 12, 2003 at 6:16 am

    Ha ha, ‘mad dog’, another reflexive anti-American outburst. You people are so predictable. Point out the horrors of communist rule in Cuba and you go, ‘yes, but…’ Guantanamo bay is ‘oppressive’ in the same sense that Parkhurst or San Quentin is oppressive. Sure, a bunch of Islamic fascists are having their rights to life, liberty and the disembowelling of Jewish babies seriously curtailed; on the other hand, so what?

    Che Guevara was an amoral sadist. He was a communist revolutionary and as such merited nothing but an ignominious death. Perry is right: the only good communist is a dead one (although in a pinch I’ll settle for hideously maimed.)

  • mad dog
    August 12, 2003 at 12:17 pm

    No, MrGillies, I am not making another anti-American outburst. I am making a criticism of the American Administration. Like many libertarians I am very worried by the increase in the administration’s use of power to stifle freedom in the name of security. Remeber what the founding fathers said about these matters – if you trade one for the other you should be entitled to neither.

    As another blog reader puts it:

    “There will always be those who see increasing the restrictions our actions as a good thing. Unfortunately, in wartime, too many people blindly and emotionally agree with them. ”

    Guantanamo bay represents the ultimate trading of freedom for security. The imposition of the will of the American Administration in a method that puts it outside of the law. If it feels it can do this in the name of security how long before it seriously tries to erode the rights of American citizens? Don’t think too long, it has already started.

    As it is deemed acceptable to fight wars on other soils before the worst effects are felt in America, why is it not accpetable to fight the illegal excesses of the American Administration abroad – before the worst effects are felt in America?

    As for the only good communist being a dead one – well Senator McCarthy and the good ol’ boys would be proud of you. And maybe your wish has come true – it is very difficult to find a real communist these days.

    But as for wanting to kill half of China – is this wise or indeed sane?

  • Kodiak
    August 12, 2003 at 3:40 pm

    i Viva Cuba libre !

    Free from Castrist oppression and free from yankee instinct of revenge.

  • mad dog
    August 12, 2003 at 4:11 pm

    Hmmm. Well that is difficult to disagree with.

    I’m not sure it is a “yankee instinct of revenge” that is causing the difficulties. But there does seem to be some angst remaining in the administration and elsewhere. What threat Cuba offers to the American people is not exactly clear. Especially as many have been there on holiday and returned without harm. Who knows, maybe they were brainwashed…

    I have agreed with so many people today that I am begining to detect the commonality of libertarian thinking running among us all.

    Is this possible?

  • Cobden Bright
    August 12, 2003 at 8:48 pm

    “Guantanamo bay is ‘oppressive’ in the same sense that Parkhurst or San Quentin is oppressive. Sure, a bunch of Islamic fascists are having their rights to life, liberty and the disembowelling of Jewish babies seriously curtailed; on the other hand, so what?”

    How do you know they are all Islamic fascists?

  • mad dog
    August 13, 2003 at 8:54 am

    The commander in chief has confirmed they are all “bad guys”. What greater evidence does one need? The commander in chief, along with all lower ranks, never makes any mistake. It says so here in the manual…

    On purely statistical grounds one would presume that at least a few of the people detained are guilty of something. As for the others, apparently we have accepted the fact that it is OK to kill the innocent with the guilty as long as the guilty don’t escape.

    Or some such argument that I do not find totally convincing.

  • Kodiak
    August 13, 2003 at 11:10 am

    Mad Dog,

    You’re right. Sooner or later being non Christian or non Jewish (ie: Muslim or atheist) will be a criminal offence in the US.

    Moreover, and beyond the funny Francophobia (“cheese-eating…”, “a French tank has 4 rear gears…” etc) that’s on the web, there’s actual Francophobia instigated by US police against French citizens (mainly journalists & airline staff, but also a 20yo young girl forced to fly back at once after having been ill-treated by rogue “policemen” & many other ones).

    The US should take extra care not to win an enemy out of its oldest allie. The US rating in France is worse than the one of North Korea: it’s something no one has ever seen…

  • mad dog
    August 13, 2003 at 2:52 pm

    I am not sure I am ready to imply a Christian or Jewish conspiracy as being the cause of anything current. The commander in chief saying that he will “start a crusade” was, in my opinion, a bit of an unfortunate choice of words. Perhaps one of many such examples.

    However, I am happy to agree that the current adminsitration seems to be implementing the motto “e pluribus unem” by means of elimination rather than integration. The “US and them” factor certainly seems to have grown in the mind of the average American (if such a person exisits). I don’t think it is a natural xenophobia just a paranoia brought on by the current terror threats against Americans and the hysteria that the Adminsitration seems to be encouraging and harnessing for its own ends.

    If Francophobia is being instigated by the authorities then it is a reckless minority within the authorities that are responsible. I would not like to think that it had become institutionalised in the adminsitration. I think it is a passing trend bought on by unfortunate circumstance and whipped up by those who seek to further their own designs.

    As for France being Americas oldest ally. Ha! So you admit it was the French at Chesapeake Bay! See what you lot did? Next time I suggest you let the British handle the situation, old boy. I mean when is the last time Canada invaded anybody…

    (for the “hard of thinking” the last paragraph was a comic sketch satirising the strange relationships arising over the past 200 odd years between the countries bordering the Atlantic. It does not imply anything other than it is excessively hot in this damned office. Must be all that 40 degree hot air coming over from France – which isn’t a joke but some might think it to be. God these footnotes are tedious but before I go I’d like ot say hello to everyone I know and thank my parents for not taking readers’ advice and strangling me at birth. Err, that’s it :0)

  • Kodiak
    August 13, 2003 at 9:39 pm

    Mad Dog,

    There IS Francophobia in the US.

  • mad dog
    August 14, 2003 at 1:27 pm

    I accept that, Kodiak.

    There is probably Francophobia in many minds in many places and if there isn’t then there is often the more general xenophobia. Which can hurt as much. I don’t think it is the wish of the majority or any libertarian minded indevidual but that does not make it any less pleasant when one encounters it. And the higher up the “chain of command” one finds it – the more distateful it is.

    But to be fair some minds are also closed against anything “American” or indeed anything “Soviet” or “right wing” or any other flavour of idea one cares to mention. Mea culpa! I have been there and it is a difficult place to leave, even if one has the will.

    I cannot support all of the ideas people espouse but that people hold their own opinions is not a bad thing, IMHO. If everyone agreed with me (steady! – ED) life would be bereft of any critical discussion and even the temperature of my coffee would be of immense interest… :0)

    I see such phobias as a opertunity to truely liberate the holder from the mental strangulation of such beliefs. I prefer to “let the light of libertarian reason chase the dark deamons of chaos from their souls”. Not all are open to reason, of course, but to see the transition is a wonderful thing.

    The only negative thing being that it usually takes a long time! But I suppose Rome wasn’t built in a day…

«  
  »